So many times we over water our figs, and bad things happen.

I was reading that orchids only need to be watered once a week with 3 ice cubes.  They melt slowly, so they don't flood the mix.  I read about it here.

What do you think?

This works great on my indoor herbs and I was wondering if it might work on the newly rooted cuttings in their cups.

Suzi

No reason to think that will reduce over watering more than judicious application the old fashion way. Also I won't want to cool off the roots of newly rooted cuttings. It won't hurt a big bush and probably not a new cutting. But why mess with a hard won temperature regime.

The instructions on "Ice Orchids" are a terrible way to water an orchid.

That will eventually kill that Orchid, I live across the street from an orchid farm and one thing they mentioned to me was how terrible that is for the orchid...

Bad idea all together. I have a couple of Orchids I rescued from someone tossing them after blooming. I keep them by my N. window and I only water them with misting from a bottle. they continue blooming for me for  month after their initial blooming. they need almost no water, whereas our figs... need more and definately not iced water. that is a bad idea. In fact, I only water my starters (figs, tomatoes and other babies with lukewarm water, so there is no shock..they keep on growing)

I wonder how they sell orchids and recommend this type of treatment?  Odd.  It works great for my herbs in the kitchen, but they like water and I use a couple cubes a day.  Basil loves the ice.  I keep the water level to the top of the container for my grapevine cuttings that have rooted in water with a couple ice cubes.  Works great for that too.

I was hoping it would solve the over-watering thing with baby figs, but I guess not.

One of those "to good to be true," ideas!

Suzi

It gets recommended sometimes because some people can't grasp proper watering and want something simple. They want to know how often and how much and the real answer is "it depends" but you better believe that advice will not sell orchids! So giving ice cubes is just as good as "water once a week with one cup" because if you are living in Seattle that is probably too much and if you are in the desert it would be too little, if you are using sphag too much and bark too little. Ice cubes do a good job of wetting potting mixes that have become hydrophobic because they went too dry. They are a lazy solution with only a single benefit above plain water and several disadvantages like others have mentioned.